Matthew Lebowitz, the station’s creative services director, sent me a note about what the station is doing to celebrate. “We wanted to celebrate the 70 year milestone, while keeping our eye on the future,” said Lebowitz.
WJAR, Sinclair’s NBC affiliate in Providence, R.I., is celebrating its 70th anniversary in broadcasting.
Matthew Lebowitz, the station’s creative services director, sent me a note about what the station is doing to celebrate.
“1949 was a big year for TV,” said Lebowitz, “considering all the 70th anniversaries I’m seeing on Market Share.”
Lebowitz is right. A quick scan of Market Share columns over the past several months reveals several stations celebrating 70 year anniversaries, including WBZ in Boston, WGN in Chicago, KPRC in Houston, WDSU in New Orleans, WDTN in Dayton and WTVM in Columbus, Ga., which celebrated its 65th.
By the way, the world’s first television station is credited as being WRGB (then W2XB) in Schenectady, N.Y, which today is a CBS affiliate owned by Sinclair.
Lebowitz said “Our anniversary efforts started in 2018, when we began laying the groundwork for the 70th Anniversary materials to come.”
“WJAR’s been very fortunate to be a leader since day one,” said Lebowitz, “the first station in the market, among the oldest stations in New England, and an early NBC affiliate — we’ve been with our friends at 30 Rock from the beginning.”
“We wanted to celebrate the 70 year milestone, while keeping our eye on the future,” said Lebowitz.
“NBC 10 stays a leader by leading. We innovate and adapt. We’ve had more logos than decades since 1949, this station doesn’t stay still. But you can’t stay still. The lives of our audience change all the time, a television station should evolve with them.”
Click here to see more on WJAR’s 70th anniversary including flashbacks, special one-minute vignettes.
NOTE: When you work in local television, the one constant you see is change. Network affiliations change. Channel numbers change. Ownership changes. General managers, news directors, marketing directors and on-air talent change. The name of the station itself sometimes changes. And marketing messages certainly come and go.
But if you can imagine how the viewers in a market see your station over 70 years, there’s a sense of permanence there that can be explored and cultivated.
If I owned a station, I would find a way to make that history, that past, be alive all the time.
Especially if my station was the first in a market, a state, in a region.
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